'Sleaze and Scummy'?!? / RE: (TV) 50 most NYC albums ever

["Leo Casey" <LeoCasey@comcast.net>]

RE: The Voice's "Our mission: to come up with a list of the 50 Most NYC
Albums Ever; albums born of the five boroughs that best capture what it's
like to live, love, struggle, and exist in the sprawling, unforgiving,
culturally dense metropolis .....". 

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood or preaching to the converted, but I am bored
and annoyed by the endless permutations of "The Top-50 Albums Lists", and
now one called "Most NYC Ever" .  It's just pure writers' laziness; instead
of an original, or informative, or even a funny Voice article, it's all too
easy to fill pages and deadlines with these Top-50 Lists.

I only scanned this List, but couple of sore points:

1) Horses # 5: Yes, she's from NYC, but I fervently believe that Smith's
Horses does not have anything specifically to do with NYC (its
neighborhoods, or even urbanism in general).  It's subject matter and
sentiments are the transcendent power of rock music. To quote one of her
former boyfriends:

"In the old days people had Jesus and these guys to embrace ... they created
a god with all their belief energies ... and when they didn't dig themselves
they could lose themselves in the Lord.  But it's too hard now.  We're
earthy people, and the old saints just don't make it, and the old God is
just too far away. He don't represent our pain no more. His words don't
shake through us no more.  Any great motherfucker rock-n'-roll song can
raise me higher than all of Revelations.  We created rock-n'-roll in our own
image, it's our child.  It's like ... the rock-n'-roll star in his highest
grace will be the new savior ... rocking to Bethlehem to be born."  ----From
Cowboy Mouth


2) Marquee Moon. # 10: One of the contributors to this Top-50 NYC writes,
"Television made music for another side of the East Village's *sleaze* and
pontificated on its *scummy* inhabitants on Marquee Moon ..." [emphasis
added].

Huh?!?  
Has this writer ever truly listened to the lyrics of Marquee Moon?

A few examples:

I'm runnin wild with the one I love 
I see no evil 
I'm runnin wild with the one-eyed ones 
I see no evil [from' See No Evil']

Tight toy night, streets were so bright. 
The world looked so thin and between my bones and skin 
there stood another person who was a little surprised 
to be face to face with a world so alive. [From 'Venus']

Darling Darling 
Do we part like the seas? The roaring shell... 
The drifting of the leaves... [From 'Guiding Light']

I was listening 
listening to the rain 
I was hearing 
hearing something else [From 'Marquee Moon']

If that's sleaze, or describes scummy denizens of NYC, then the earth is
flat.

-----Original Message-----
From: tv-owner@obbard.com [mailto:tv-owner@obbard.com] On Behalf Of robin
dunn
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 11:55 PM
To: tv@obbard.com; eternalcafe@yahoogroups.com
Subject: (TV) 50 most NYC albums ever






these lists always annoy, but our friends are well placed.


http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2014/02/50-most-nyc-albums.php

r
bscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"

--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"